Mobile communication systems continue to grow in popularity and have become an integral part of both personal and business communications. A mobile communication system may allow internet access via a cellular network, a wireless local area network (WLAN), and/or other type of private or public network, for example. Thus, data service may become available to a mobile wireless communication device, for sending and receiving emails, browsing different websites, placing an internet phone call, streaming video from internet, etc.
When multiple wireless networks are available for communication with the mobile wireless communications device, it may be desirable to select the wireless network having increased performance with respect to the other available wireless networks. For example, based upon a location of the mobile wireless communications device and other conditions, a wireless network may be chosen that may be known to have reduced network congestion and coverage gaps.
Current approaches for selecting a wireless network from among multiple available wireless networks typically use passively measured criteria. For example, a mobile wireless communications device may use criteria such as signal strength, location, and historical data along with statically defined weighing criteria to rate performance of a wireless network. For a currently active connection, that is, the wireless network currently being used by the mobile wireless communications device for communications, other measurements, such as, for example, packet loss and jitter may be used. Passive measurements, especially for wireless networks that are not active, may not provide an accurate picture of the performance of the available wireless networks to the mobile wireless communications device.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,610,057 to Bahl et al. discloses a system for selecting a wireless network on a device capable of communicating with multiple wireless networks. More particularly, a virtual coexistence driver (VCD) obtains operational information regarding active network interfaces. The VCD determines a congestion/interference (C/I) metric for each channel and selects a channel for the same wireless network based upon the C/I metric. If another channel for the same wireless technology is unavailable, an alternative network is selected.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,196 to Hengeveld et al. is directed to automatic cell transfer based upon reverse channel characteristics. More particularly, one or more of the reverse channel parameters of a reverse channel between a mobile device and a base station are measured and assessed against one or more thresholds. The mobile device searches for a second base station based upon the one or more measured transmission parameters as compared to one or more of the thresholds.